Facebook 'Logout Ads' to Promote Microsoft Bing

Recently, it was announced that Facebook users would see more advertising promotions in the weeks to come.

One of the first companies to come aboard is Microsoft, which will have its Bing search engine page embedded on the logout page of Facebook's site.

It's reported that after users log out of Facebook, they will be greeted with an interactive Bing advertisement complete with wallpaper and an active search box.

Typing a query into the search box will open up a results page in a separate tab.

"Logout advertisements" like these are said to be among the newest changes coming to Facebook.

Microsoft and Facebook: A Storied Relationship

The fact that Microsoft is Facebook's first advertising customer should not come as a surprise to those who keep close tabs on the industry:

In October 2007, Microsoft purchased a 1.6 per cent stake in Facebook for about $240 million, effectively valuing Facebook at $15 billion. (Source: zdnet.com)

Since then, the two companies have worked collaboratively on a number of different projects. Microsoft even provided display ads for Facebook at one point.

Since then, the advertising deal has expired and the two companies now compete in the online advertising market.

Facebook Logout Campaign Could Generate Big Business for Bing

Many predict that Microsoft could generate big business with Bing's "logout advertisement" on Facebook, which has an estimated 37 million U.S. users logging out each day, and an average of 105 million different people on a monthly basis. (Source: softpedia.com)

If Microsoft is serious about becoming a major competitor to the Google search platform, its Bing search engine will need to start producing numbers that are comparable to those of the current search leader.

The planned Bing logout campaign on Facebook will likely lead to thousands of additional users selecting Microsoft's search engine out of sheer convenience, if nothing else.

Logout advertisements are officially expected to first emerge in April, 2012, though in the past few days a few Facebook users have already reported seeing Bing appear when they exit Facebook.